> It's worth giving serious consideration to pausing human activity in the oceans until we really understand what the whales are doing and saying

It really isn't. We need the oceans. Your proposed course of action has unimaginably large costs, no prospective benefit, and indefinite duration.

It might have huge prospective benefit for the whales.

So what? If every whale in the world died right now, that would be much better for humanity than the insane approach of ceasing all use of the ocean.

Ah, the "only humans matter" argument.

Quite a lot of people, myself included, don't agree that what is "better for humanity" is the best option when it comes at a massive cost to other aspects of the natural world.

I'm now curious how one would estimate the number of megadeaths would result from the elimination of all oceangoing trade and ocean fishing. Heck, what percentage of only Japan's 127 million people would starve?

Well, maybe we could at least stop high-energy sonar testing.